BA/BA (Hons) Acting for Stage and Screen

This two-year course enables those with an appropriate further education qualification to further their studies, providing the training you need to pursue a career in acting for stage and screen and obtain a degree.

An actor can be called upon to perform in a variety of venues, media and styles and this course will provide vocational and industry-relevant training through exploration, centred on acting for stage and acting for screen, and on the craft and practice of performance.

See the foot of the page for some student case studies/ staff profiles.

Why QMU?

The course is taught across QMU, with its expertise in actor training, and Edinburgh Napier University, with its well-established reputation as a centre for excellence in screen practice-led courses. There is specialist teaching on the campuses of both Edinburgh Napier and QMU as well as in rehearsal and performance spaces throughout Edinburgh.

The course will help you create an actor’s toolbox which you can add to over the years and which will serve you throughout your career.

100% satisfaction in the National Student Survey 2018*

* QMU internal analysis of unpublished NSS 2018 data

About the course

An actor can be called upon to perform in a variety of venues, media and styles and this course will provide vocational and industry-relevant training through exploration, centred on acting for stage and acting for screen, and on the craft and practice of performance.

The course will provide a distinctive and complementary course of actor training in the conservatoire tradition. It provides all the training that you will require to pursue a career in acting on stage or screen. It will bring together the fundamental skills of acting, character work, voice and movement, and explore the ways in which they are deployed and synthesised to create character and performance. It will identify the ways in which these fundamental skills can be modified and made appropriate to the constraints of different media, narratives, and places of performance. While the emphasis will be on practice, you will learn the theories of performance in a classroom setting which will underpin practical workshops. Students will be required to interrogate their practice rigorously and, in so doing, begin to create an actor’s toolbox to which they will add over the years. It will serve them throughout their chosen career.

During both years there will be particular focus on style, and on the deployment of style appropriate to medium and genre. Through intensive study of the similarities and differences between the demands of theatrical and screen acting, graduates will have a critical understanding of how they might adapt their technique to other media and genres.

This course will enable you to convert an appropriate existing qualification into a degree and is equivalent to Years Three and Four of a degree.

Structure

You can opt to study for an ordinary degree, completing one year of this course or an honours degree, completing two. You will complete a range of modules each year as outlined.

The modules listed here are correct at time of posting (Jan 2019). The course is likely to undergo — please check back here for any updates.

Placements

N/A

Exchange opportunities

N/A

Careers

Successful completion of the course will give graduates the skills necessary to work in the performing arts industry, as well as providing them with a wide range of transferable skills which they can take on into employment in many different fields.

Entry requirements

Direct Entry: HND Acting and Performance/ Musical Theatre with B in the graded unit for the second year. Foundation degrees in appropriate subjects considered. Two years of a relevant degree considered.

Special Information for EU Applicants: Previously EU students have had the cost of their tuition fees met by the Scottish Government. At the point of publication there is no information on whether this arrangement will continue for students starting their studies in 20/21. Updates will be posted on the QMU website when available.

A Student Story - more at foot of page

Jamie Adams, BA (Hons) Acting for Stage and Screen
"I have had the chance to develop my screen acting abilities, which I previously had no experience in, and this is has been excellent in furthering my development and understanding of text and a whole new medium of acting."
Read my story...